


Care and Feeding of Spiders

by Starofwinter



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Emotionally Repressed, Fluff, Gen, Team as Family, Tony doesn't know what to do with these feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-14
Updated: 2018-05-14
Packaged: 2019-05-07 03:38:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14662521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starofwinter/pseuds/Starofwinter
Summary: Peter has a dizzy spell, and Tony isn't worrying, not at all.





	Care and Feeding of Spiders

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Variative](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Variative/gifts).



“So I was thinking, if I-” Peter stops suddenly as he sways on his feet, and Tony catches him before he can pitch too far to one side or the other, “Whoa, that was- that was weird.”  He blinks a few times, frowning.

“What- hey, no passing out on me,” Tony says quickly, his heart in his throat, “You okay, kid?  Get hit on the head in that fight? How many fingers am I holding up?” He curses the fact that Peter still has his suit on; he can’t see any blood or bruises.  

“No, no, no, I didn’t get hit or anything, I’m fine, just got dizzy for a second, I can keep going-”

“Nope, you’re coming with me, Pepper would have my head if I let you go home by yourself like this.  Come on, in the car.” Tony shoos him in as Happy pulls up. “Want to grab something to eat? I’m feeling cheeseburgers.”  

Peter blushes as he pulls off the hood of his suit.  “I have stuff at home-”

“Nope, when was the last time you ate?”  Tony raises a brow at him, crossing his arms.  “I know what a blood sugar crash looks like. You’re burning a lot of energy with all this, you need to keep up with it.”  He doesn’t know what to do with the worried tightness in his chest, so he stuffs it back down and focuses on Peter, pulling a protein bar out of a pocket and tossing it to the kid.  Peter devours it with the enthusiasm of a teenage boy, which involves basically shoving the whole thing in his mouth at once while Tony stares in something like horror.

The cheeseburger goes about the same, with Peter too hungry to be self-conscious as he eats like a starving puppy - Tony wordlessly slides over his own fries, and he doubts the kid even notices, but the warmth in his chest eases the tension there.  He ignores that feeling a little harder; he’s not the kid’s parental unit, and he isn’t adopting him like some lost puppy. Not at all.

They talk about Peter’s schoolwork as Happy drives them to Aunt May’s apartment, but Tony is already jotting down notes to research later - predicting how much energy Peter burns in a typical patrol and how much in a fight, standard caloric needs, how to pack as much nutrition into as small a package as possible; it needs to actually taste like something besides cardboard.   _ He’s _ had enough green shakes to last him a lifetime, he’s not going to inflict that on Peter too.  

Tony excuses his train of thought with the decision that it’ll be mass-produced to send in relief packages - he’s not doing this  _ just _ because it’d scared a few years he can’t really spare off his life when Peter almost dropped where he stood.   _ Once you feed them, they’re yours _ , he thinks, and  _ no, he’s not bringing the kid home like a puppy.   _ He’s not.  

If a box of high protein, high carb chocolate meal bars mysteriously show up in a discreetly-marked package for Peter the next day, well.  Tony doesn’t know anything about  _ that. _


End file.
